Tequila: Liquid Gold Forget the party drink image. When it comes to tequila, what's news is old. By Nancy Ross Ryan

Photo by Laurie Proffitt

Felizmente for general good taste and style, tequila is rapidly shedding its image as a slammer or shooter, or simply as the kick in a Margarita -- not that there's anything wrong with a good Margarita. And what is catching the attention of connoisseurs, cosmopolitans and bon vivants alike are the fine aged tequilas. Tequila takes its name from the town in the state of Jalisco, Mexico, and today most tequila distilleries are located in or near that town. Super-premium tequilas come in three distinctly different kinds, and the good news is that all three are easy to find, because the U.S. accounts for 90 percent of all tequila exports. There is white or blanco (sometimes called silver or plata), that is not aged, but bottled directly after the distillation process. While the white tequila is generally recommended as a mixer, there is an enormous difference in quality (see "First, Read the Label"), and the better the tequila, the better the drink. However, the tequilas that are captivating discriminating drinkers are the two aged tequilas, gold or reposado, and aged or añejo tequilas. Gold or reposado tequilas are aged in redwood or American oak casks for two to 12 months before being bottled. Aged or añejo tequilas are aged in American or French oak for one to two years and can approach the smoothness and complexity of a fine Cognac or single-malt Scotch. You can find some very fine reposado and añejo tequilas for between $20 to $50 per bottle. And if you look very, very hard you can find añejo tequila for $1,000 a bottle. But once you find them, how do you distinguish the good ones? When I am on a voyage of discovery, my compass is Kindred Spirits by F. Paul Pacult (Hyperion, New York, 1997) an excellent guide not only to quality tequilas but quality spirits in general. Pacult, a beverage expert, reviews, gives tasting notes and rates representative selections of the world's spirits and fortified wines. However, as Pacult himself points out, it's impossible to evaluate every spirit on the marketplace, which number in the thousands, and new products enter the arena every year. For example, in December of 1999 -- when many vintners and distillers were releasing special commemorative millennium bottlings -- the Jose Cuervo company unveiled its 1800 Single Barrel Millennium Tequila. Made of 100 percent blue agave, only 300 barrels of this unblended añejo tequila were laid down to age in new French oak in 1997. When released, it was sold by the barrel only, at $18,000 a barrel. Two hundred of those barrels were earmarked for purchasers in the United States. Each barrel yielded 288 bottles, hand-labeled with the name of the purchaser, the barrel and bottle number. So in order to get a taste of this particular aged tequila, one would have to ferret out a lucky owner and wangle an invitation for, say, dinner some evening in the hopes that a glass of Edicion 1800 Gran Reserva Tequila Añejo del Nuevo Milenio would make an appearance. But as Pacult points out, there is no shortage of excellent aged tequilas on the marketplace. And he gives four- and five-stars -- out of a possible five stars -- to a dozen, all told, gold and aged tequilas and also to two silver tequilas. Certainly enough to keep me occupied for awhile. I also combine the recommendations from Pacult with a visit to my favorite wine and spirits merchant who has specialists in the various beverage categories. Once you find them, how do you drink them? We put the question to an expert, Enrique Legorreta, the tequilero (tequila master) for the past 17 years for Jose Cuervo in Tequila, Jalisco, Mexico. According to Legorreta, you can drink the best white tequila straight before a meal as an aperitif; use it in mixed drinks and cocktails (Margarita is the classic); drink a shot with salt (before) and lime (afterward), or with a sangrita chaser. Sangrita is not sangria, but a traditional Mexican aperitif served chilled and usually accompanied by a shot of tequila. Sangrita contains fresh lime juice, fresh orange juice, onions, salt and hot chili pepper. Some recipes also use tomato juice. And in Mexico a shot of tequila is served in a caballito, or tall, thin Mexican shot glass that holds 1-1/2 to 2 oz. Gold or reposado makes a great Margarita, says Legorreta, and shots call for a beer chaser. And when it comes to añejo treat it and drink it -- after dinner -- just as you would a fine Cognac. Feeling racy? Make an añejo highball with club soda or serve it on the rocks. Want to make a tequilero shudder? Just ask him if tequila is bottled with a worm. "No, no!" he will protest. "Only Mezcal -- and only some Mescals -- have a gusano, a worm. Tequila? Never!" Then he will go on to explain that Mezcal is not the same as tequila, that is distilled from different kinds of agave, not just the blue agave, and that mezcal is only distilled once, whereas tequila is distilled twice, and that mezcal originated in Oaxaca not Tequila, and... They do go on when you ask about that worm. How to Make Your Own Tequila in 12 Easy Steps 1. Plant a blue agave. It looks like a bluish green cactus, but it's actually a prehistoric plant related to the lily family. Better still, plant a field of blue agave. Jalisco, Mexico, has the best climate and volcanic soil. 2. Wait 10 years. 3. While you're waiting, separate the hijitos, or baby agave offshoots, and replant them, or else your first harvest will be your last. 4. Purchase a coa de jima -- the specialized tool that the jimadors or skilled agave harvesters use. It looks like a long-handled shovel with a flattened blade. It is very heavy. The shovel blade is kept very sharp. 5. After about 10 years, harvest the pineapple-shaped heart or piña of the agave. Each piña weighs between 40 and 150 pounds. Might as well harvest the whole field using the coa de jima, working all day in the sun. A jimador can harvest a piña in 60 seconds or less. See how many piña you can harvest -- without hurting yourself even once with that sharp, sharp coa de jima. 6. Load all those piñas on a truck and take them to the distillery. 7. Unload all those piñas (no fair just the 40-pound ones, the 150-pound ones have to be unloaded, too). Now cut each one in half. 8. Steam all those halved piñas in huge specialized ovens, then crush them to extract the aguamiel -- "honey water" -- or juice. 9. Transform yourself into a tequilero (the tequila equivalent of an expert winemaker). Ferment the juice and distill it twice in copper stills. 10. To make white or plata tequila, bottle it straight from the holding tanks (where it has been cut to 80 proof). 11. To make gold or reposado tequila, age it in redwood or American oak casks for between two to 12 months before bottling. 12. To make añejo, or aged, tequila, age it in oak -- small French oak barrels are best -- for one to two years before bottling. First, Read the Label The N.O.M. (Norma Official Mexicana) registration number on the label means that the tequila meets or exceeds the Mexican government regulations for quality and authenticity. These standards include that the tequila was made from 100% natural ingredients, that the fermented agave juice has been distilled twice, that the final product is a result of no less than 51% sugars from cooking the agave juice with remainder from other natural sugars, and that the tequila produced be no less that 38% alcohol by volume. "100% blue agave," a further guarantee of quality, means that the tequila was produced from 100% blue agave. White (blanco) or silver (plata) has not been aged but bottled after distillation. Gold or reposado has been aged in wood, typically white oak, for two to 12 months before being bottled. Aged or añejo has been aged in wood, typically French oak, for one to two years before b being bottled. Estate bottled means that the plants were grown, fermented, aged and bottled on the producer's property.

LIQUID ASSETS - May 2000

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